European Royalty discussion

Please discuss Part Three: Unforgiveness here.

I just finished the book and absolutely loved it! I found it very interesting how Olimpia died. I'm curious as to whether anyone else was surprised by the revelation.

I was very surprised...I thought that she would have been much more protective of her well-being. Especially considering all the care she took in hoarding all of her riches. But then again she was a risk-taker, I can't imagine sneaking out chests of gold from under the Pope's bed for weeks.

I really enjoyed the book as well and am now inspired to learn more about Queen Christina, she seems quite the character!

I know! Christina sounds so cool. She was also an answer to a Jeopardy question the other night, and my husband was very impressed :)

There isn't too much out there that has been written about Christina, which is surprising considering her descriptive lifestyle. I did find (and add) to my to-read shelf:
Christina, Queen of Sweden: The Restless Life of a European Eccentric by Veronica Buckley. How funny that she was the answer to a Jeopardy question!

LaLatina, it was hilarious - I also just discovered the Buckley book from another thread, and I have added it to my TBR list.

Just saw the thread where you discovered it...so many posts to catch up on ;)

I've seen that Christina book at Borders before and it looks pretty good.

Well, I finally finished the book, and I really enjoyed it. A couple of sections here and there were a bit slow, but otherwise it was a quick read. I also was really surprised how Olimpia died! I peaked at the comments here enough to see that she died in a weird way, so I stayed out until I finished.



***SPOILER - OLIMPIA'S DEATH***



I started reading the plague stuff, and it was fascinating, but I couldn't understand why the author was paying so much attention to that topic. Finally it dawned on me (because I knew something strange was coming) that she died of the plague. I just couldn't believe it! She had gone through so much that it was crazy to think that's how her life ended.

I couldn't believe her sneaking the gold out either. It was SO sad that none of them would provide the money for a proper burial for the Pope.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER*


I found it interesting to see that human nature hasn't really changed much since then, and the funny thing is is that when they did put a reformer in who wasn't corrupt - the entire system almost collapsed!

I am just a few pages away from being finished - this book took me much longer to read than it should have! I haven't had nearly enough time to devote to reading lately, too many Holiday preparations.
Anyway - I've really enjoyed it!
It was fun to read a book with the group - next time I hope to be a little more active in the discussions!